This Spring is bizarre… My visit to the Massif Central and my hopes of catching a fario, or two, in Allier, Puy de Dome, and Cantal have been defeated by the weather. Every river I studied was high, fast and coloured. It rained the night of my stay at ‘Le Beau Site d’Auvergne’ and whilst mine host encouraged, the forecast for the next two days was … Continue reading Ce Printemps est bizarre…

What a fun year for my fishing ‘en France’. I fished more days than in previous years, ten, including my ‘drive down’ trip, but also on a separate visit to Picardie, and several from our home in the Cote d’Azur in Provence. I do love the alpine streams, in the Southern Alps, north of Nice. I added three Regions to my tally (Languedoc-Rousillon, Midi-Pyrenees, and … Continue reading 2017 is over, at least for fishing!

This is not a sorry tale. This IS a sorry tale. I tried hard and caught ‘rien’. But I found the most gorgeous river and I will return because this is the Somme stream I want to conquer in my fabulous French ‘quest’! My exchanges with ‘Peche 80’, and in particular, Simon Major (Agent de Developement at Fédération de la Somme pour la Pêche et … Continue reading Somme

Who knows where Oise is? How many Brits have even heard of ‘Oise’? If I said it was #60, would that help…? Not really maybe, but it’s in Picardie, and in parts, only an hour north of Paris, where I had to be in late May, this year. Never one to miss an opportunity to fish a Department I had not,…but how? Laurent Sainsot is … Continue reading OISE (#17)

You don’t fish for a second time, with a Guide you don’t like, or rate. I first fished with Eddy Bertrand in 2015 with Rob Pickering (Pikko), and although visits to three rivers did not deliver a single fario for either of us, we both enjoyed Eddy’s company, and so it was to him I turned to win what I could not the first time, … Continue reading AVEYRON (#16)

Wikiwand is very clear that the Jonte is a river of Lozere. Wikipedia agrees, but also includes it in their list of the ‘Rivers of Aveyron’! It actually forms the border between the two departments for a time (like so many rivers do, in France, they providing a ‘natural’ boundary) so, depending on where you are standing, it could be either! For my purposes, I … Continue reading LOZERE (#15)

Now how do I get from Aubusson to Eymoutiers in time to meet Ghislain at 9am? The SatNav in my car always seems to underestimate both distance and time, and GoogleMap tends to get it right every time. One hour it told me. It did not tell me the road was closed to the west of Orladeix, and in turning around and retracing my kms., … Continue reading HAUTE-VIENNE (#14)

The Massif Central is a vast space covering some 85000 square kilometres, and stretches over 200 miles North to South, and, at its widest, stretches 175 miles from East to West. Until the arrival of the first railways in France, it was so remote that the only people who crossed it were pilgrims. In winter it was a bleak and snowbound place, which made travelling … Continue reading CREUSE (#13)

I have now fished 11 of the 22 Regions ‘de France’ and caught trout in nine of them, and I have caught trout in 12 of the 16 Departments I have fished, and from sixteen rivers. This season, I added Pas de Calais and Haute Marne to my list of Departments…I must try harder! So for this year, and to my French guiding friends, thank … Continue reading The season is over…